Renfrew boss Martin Ferry couldn’t hide his delight after his side’s “massive” 3-1 win over Darvel on Saturday.
In a reversal of their loss in the West Region Championship season opener at Recreation Park, Ferry and co-boss Colin Clark welcomed Matthew Kennedy’s side to New Western Park well aware a win would close the gap on Darvel, who sit directly above them.
The Vale had run out 4-3 winners in August’s seven-goal thriller and the Ayrshire men have looked close to unstoppable since then, enjoying a 10-game unbeaten run in the second tier.
After an even first half on Saturday, Frew opened the scoring 38 minutes in, thanks to Ross Gilmour who popped up with a close range header in a packed box to send his side in a goal up at the break.
The visitors huffed and puffed after the restart but it was Renfrew who grabbed the second goal of the afternoon on the hour mark with Bob Campbell getting on the end of another set-piece to prod it home after a scramble in the box.
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Frew remained resolute up the other end to keep the dangerous Ayrshire side at bay before clinching all three points, with Scott Morton slotting home from the spot after Craig Dallas was brought down in the box.
Phil Johnston, despite looking to be in an offside position, headed home a late consolation for the away side but Frew comfortably saw it out to hand the big-spending Darvel their second league defeat of the season.
“That was a massive win,” a delighted Ferry told Gazette Sport. “It was great to see us dig in for that one.
“Their manager was on Twitter after the match about how they could have won two matches with the chances they created but, the thing is, they didn’t win that one.
“We scored three goals against them down at Recreation Park at the start of the season and then three here – so they need to give us a bit of credit for that.
“I replied to him saying we scored three goals against a quality side so deserved the win. Darvel did bombard us in the second half but we stood up to it and deserved the win.
“It’s not all just about Darvel – myself and Colin are delighted with the performance from our boys.
“Looking at the table, that was a game we had to win. Losing that would have opened up a bit of a gap between us and them in second and third, which wouldn’t have been ideal.”
“Our win and Cumbernauld losing is the perfect weekend in terms of results - we couldn’t have asked for better than that.”
Frew still sit in third after the win but they cut the gap between themselves and Darvel Juniors to five points having played a game less.
READ MORE: Colin Clark believes Frew can play even better after ending Peasy drought
And while Ferry was over the moon with that, he has urged his side not to throw away all that good work with a poor performance this weekend.
He added: “We’ve got a game in hand over Darvel now but there’s no point beating them and losing to the teams near the bottom.
“That’s the mindset we’ve got to have against Dalry.
“They’re 10th but it could be a tough one so we’ve got keep this momentum going now.”
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